The Rock's Black Adam to Be Introduced in Suicide Squad 2?

4 months ago

Warner Bros.’ upcoming DCEU sequel Suicide Squad 2 is getting on the right track, with director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) coming aboard to take the helm, and today we have word that the sequel may be planning quite the big surprise. A new report claims that the sequel will serve as the DCEU introduction for Dwayne Johnson’s long-awaited character Black Adam, who was originally supposed to star in the Shazam! movie before that project was reworked and Black Adam was given his own stand-alone adventure. This report also claims that production won’t begin until October 2018, to accommodate The Rock’s busy schedule.

The Rock already has two film projects lined up to shoot next year, Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie and his controversial Fast & Furious spin-off that is in the works with Jason Statham, along with a possible fifth season of HBO’s Ballers as well. Still, insiders state that Dwayne Johnson’s role in Suicide Squad 2 won’t take that long to shoot, but it’s worth noting that a report from late October claimed that Suicide Squad 2 starts shooting in March 2018, despite no cast members being officially set and Gavin O’Connor presumably still working on the script. October 2018 seems like a more reasonable production start date for all involved, although that date hasn’t been confirmed yet either.

What’s interesting is that Dwayne Johnson himself hinted in a May interview that there will be a surprise DCEU introduction for Black Adam, and he has mentioned this surprise introduction more than once in other interviews this year. This report certainly falls in line with The Rock’s repeated suggestions, revealing that the story will follow the Suicide Squad being tasked with tracking down a dangerous new weapon, which is none other than Black Adam himself. It isn’t known if Suicide Squad 2 will then directly set up the stand alone Black Adam movie, although it certainly could be likely.

While the first Suicide Squad movie didn’t suffer from a lack of star-power, with an all-star cast including Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jared Leto (Deadshot) and Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), just to name a few, the movie was universally panned by critics. Given Dwayne Johnson’s work in taking the Fast & Furious franchise to new heights, after signing on for 2011’s Fast Five, it’s easy to see why Warner Bros.’ wants to introduce The Rock’s Black Adam in this movie, to not only bring some of his magic to the Suicide Squad franchise, but also set the table for his Black Adam movie. There has been talk that Black Adam could eventually fight Superman (Henry Cavill), but it all depends on how well this character is received.

Then again, Jared Leto stated last month that he still isn’t sure yet if he will be returning as The Joker in Suicide Squad 2, and Margot Robbie also stated that she doesn’t know which project will go forward for her next, which could be either Suicide Squad 2, Gotham City Sirens or Joker and Harley Quinn. If this sequel loses both Jared Leto and Margot Robbie, then perhaps this sequel could use all the Rock they can get. Still, this report from The Wrap has yet to be confirmed by the studio, but hopefully we’ll have some official details soon.